58. Leche Frita at Cafe Sevilla

Behold our annual 100 Favorite Dishes countdown! Every day until the publication of our fantabulous Best Of Issue, we'll list our favorite meals this year in descending order. Enjoy, pass it on, and tune in daily!

Cronut-schmonut. Cafe Sevilla's leche frita is the fried dessert we should all be obsessed with. What is leche frita? Essentially, it's fried custard--a traditional Spanish dessert that's like the Ringo to flan's and crema Catalana's John and Paul. It's rather plain-looking, made by cooking flour, milk, and eggs together in a pot, letting it cool to set, cutting it up, breading it and then frying the pieces in oil. The unremarkable outward appearance masks its greatness.

When you take your first forkful, you realize it shares the properties of other desserts. The outer crust has a churro-like crispiness while the middle is soft, melting, with the tenderness of crepe and the creamy richness of flan. So far I've found leche frita only here, and nowhere in OC. My hope is that those OC Fair deep-fried hucksters who brought us the deep-fried Twinkie are reading. They need to come here, taste this thing, then start tinkering with the recipe. I mean, think of it on a stick! And they need only translate the Spanish title to English to sell it. It literally means "fried milk".